"If the computer can accomplish the task better than other materials or experiences, we will use it. If it doesn't clearly do the job better, we will save the money and use methods that have already proven their worth. In the case of the child under seven, there are few things that can be done better on a computer and many that fail miserably by comparison." Healy, pp. 217-218
"...imagining (i.e., creating scenarios from their own mind, not from a menu of possibilities)..." Healy, p. 229
"How much intellectual rigor must we sacrifice in order to get kids 'motivated'?" Healy, p. 264
"While these screens [projection screens] are often praised for their flexibility, they encourage teachers to present material in bits and pieces, which come and go quickly." --Oppenheimer, p. 372 (in footnote)
"But we all must realize that opening the Internet's door to youngsters also requires teachers to accept additional responsibilities. This does not just involve watching out for pornographic or violent material; that's the easy part. It also concerns watching what values and beliefs students develop about what knowledge is; how it's built; how it's used; and what it demands of them, as students and citizens." --Oppenheimer, p. 395
"...we may field a dozen alerts an hour...Each of them is a
distraction, another intrusion on our thoughts, another bit of
information that takes up precious space in our working memory." Carr,
p. 132
"What the Net diminishes is Johnson's primary kind of knowledge: the
ability to know, in depth, a subject for ourselves, to construct within
our own minds the rich and idiosyncratic set of connections that give
rise to a singular intelligence." Carr, p. 143
"But Google, as the suppplier of the Web's principal navigational
tools, also shapes our relationship with the content that it serves up
so efficiently and in such profusion. The intellectual technologies it
has pioneered promote the speedy, superficial skimming of information
and discourage any deep, prolonged engagement with a single argument,
idea, or narrative." Carr. p. 156
"The development of a well-rounded mind requires both an ability to
find and quickly parse a wide range of information and a capacity for
open-ended reflection. There needs to be time for efficient data
collection and time for inefficient contemplation, time to operate the
machine and time to sit idly in the garden. We need to work in Google's
'world of numbers,' but we also need to be able to retreat to Sleepy
Hollow. The problem today is that we're losing our ability to strike a
balance between those two very different states of mind. Mentally,
we're in perpetual locomotion." Carr, p. 168
"Culture is more than the aggregate of what Google describes as 'the
world's information.' It's more than what can be reduced to binary code
and uploaded on the Net. To remain vital, culture must be renewed in
the minds of the members of every generation. Outsource memory, and
culture withers." Carr, p. 197
"The great danger we face as we bcome more intimately involved with
our computers--as we come to experience more of our lives through the
disembodied symbols flickering across our screens--is that we'll begin
to lose our humanness, to sacrifice the very qualities that separate us
from machines. The only way to avoid that fate, Weizenbaum wrote, is to
have the self-awareness and the courage to refuse to delegate to
computers the most human of our mental activities and intellectual
pursuits, particularly 'tasks that demand wisdom.'" Carr, pp. 207-208
"McLuhan's point was that an honest appraisal of any new technology,
or of progress in general, requires sensitivity to what's lost as well
as what's gained. We shouldn't allow the glories of technology to blind
our inner watchdog to the possibility that we've numbed an essential
part of our self." Carr, p. 212
This page was prepared by Dr. David M. Marcovitz.
Last Updated: October 12, 2011